NB: To continue to follow our progress with the Arduino please refer to the dedicated WordPress blog here: http://bauleban.aghillo.org/

So I’ve just got my hands on Oomlut’s Arduino starter kit and I’m going to try to log my progress. First impressions:

The case is a bit naff and there are components floating everywhere (there’s a glass-half-empty attitude). But its fantastic to get my hands on an Arduino at last. Windows XP doesn’t find the driver automatically but that isn’t unusual for XP. But if you follow the instructions on Arduino’s own website carefully: http://www.arduino.cc/en/Guide/Windows you shouldn’t have any trouble. Its simply a case of telling Windows where to look for the driver — which is amongst the files you download for the IDE.

There’s an awful lot of support out there for people who want to have a play with an Arduino board but don’t have previous experience of coding and/or electronics. Quite a few online crafting/electronic suppliers seem to have Arduino starter kits — so this is evidently a popular hobby.

Its exciting to get the “Blink” program running (Arduino’s version of “Hello World”), but because this board has a built in LED I haven’t had a chance to play with the components yet. First of all I’ve been changing the timings of the delay between LED blinks — baby steps first

The Arduino IDE is available for free and on first inspection seems intuitive and powerful. My understanding is that you write in Arduino code (which is based on C++), this is then converted into actual C++, which is then compiled and can be uploaded to the board.